Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Unlike many in the agricultural community, I didn’t grow up on a farm but found my love of food through cooking. Food was always important in bringing my family together around the table, and many of my fondest memories include being in the kitchen making family recipes with my mother or shopping for unique cooking and baking utensils. Studying sociology in graduate school, I began to see the role of agriculture in society but also realized that through thousands of years of history, communities had come together and been broken apart by food. Realizing I wanted to make a difference in food and agriculture, I worked at several agricultural marketing and communication jobs and learned about the power of generational stewardship first-hand from farmers and ranchers across the country before finding myself as CEO of the United Soybean Board (USB). Coming from a position as CEO of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB), I was excited for the opportunity to advance soy’s reputation because it’s such a versatile product with an impact across industries — used in everything from biodiesel, to crayons, to tires and shoes, and of course, used widely across the food industry...

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This article originally ran on Authority Magazine.